Sunday, April 09, 2006

I just wanted to get you all opinions on the following conversation I had with a friend of mine from the Left Coast...The conversation basically concerns the issue of race...Please tell me your thoughts about the dialogue if you have anything to offer...Take care and stay blessed!!!

Bro. R2p.s.It's "long",but worth the read.....

On 3/1/06, J wrote:

I do not believe that racial animus exists in this country. Of course there are bigots everywhere and nothing will change that. But quite to the contrary, people tend to walk on eggshells around blacks. I believe that are treated with much more respect than the whites. Gangs in the inner city, for example, are not condemned, rather excuses are made for their behavior, no one expects them to be responsible for the turmoil they create.

I hate to say this, but I firmly believe that Blacks are the racially biased ones. A white person could never walk down the streets of Compton without being mugged or killed. Something is wrong here. To erase the color line, blacks like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton et al should stop using the race card in order to profit.The people who cheered at the verdict in the Simpson murder trial should be ashamed, as the cops who beat Rodney King should have been held accountable.

Blacks have become frivolous in their protestations…All arrests are because they are black, not because a crime was committed. Things are insane. Blacks in sports have no complaints, just ask Karl Malone or Charles Barkley.

Things are a mess but at this point, and I look at it objectively, the blacks are far more to blame in this day and age, than the whites. As Joe Louis said, the only race is the Human Race.

On Thu, 2 Mar 2006 I wrote my reply: Subject: Re: The only race is the human race

Dear J,Thanks for your insight…I will have to agree to disagree with you on this one…First I would like to address the issue of White folks being mugged or killed in the hood…Statistics show that Black folks are more likely to commit crimes against other Black people than they are against White people…The late Stanley Tookie Williams, co-founder of the L.A. Crips and anti-gang activist stated that the main targets ofhis gang's crimes were Black folks…He stated that White folks were relatively safe around him (check out the Tookie links I gave you in the e-mail yesterday)…There's even a running joke among some Black people that Black folks would be scared to toucha White person in the hood because they may be an undercover cop or social worker...

Our society if you look at the perceptions given to us by all the media institutions seems to value White people's lives more so than people of color…Just look at the media coverage given missing white women cases such as Natalee Holloway, Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson and Elizabeth Smart in comparison to those of missing Black women (the fact that I can name all these missing white women from memory and I can hardly recall the names let alone the faces of a missing Black woman makes what I am saying too sad and true for words)…Please look at these cases and honestly tell me have you heard about these cases hardly if at all in the past year:

Then you can see for yourself I am more likely to get mugged and killed in the hood because my life is seen as of little value to the Black perpetrator(s) of the crime committed on me...A Black person is likely to get more jail time and possibly a death sentence for killing a white person than you would for killing a Black person…As far as questioning the legitimacy of institutional racism you should also ask yourself why is it that more than half of the U.S. prison (one million plus)is made up of Black inmates when Black people only represent 12% of the U.S. population...We also have the highest number of children inmates in the world and an alarmingly high percentage of them are people of color…Why is it easy for some Black youths to go to jail and get felonies than it is to get an education ,a high school diploma and a job…Some people don't even realize that the policies of the Black President known as Bill Clinton helped to put more Black people in jail than any other president's term in the history of the U.S....The reason for this is the crack/ cocaine policy which gave harsher longer termed sentences for the selling and distribution of crack while cocaine users/ dealers were basically given a slap on the wrist in comparison…In the poorer urban communities crack is more readily available than cocaine and cocaine is the choice of drug among middle and upper class White folks which is ironic considering their basically the same drug…If you are caught with crack you are charged with a felony which causes one to lose their voting rights among other privileges…This is voter disenfranchisement happening before 2000 and under a democrat's watch no less!!!

The fact that many people of color are in jail for non-violent offenses for long periods of time is also troubling as well(I know there are many people in jail that are supposed to be there as well)…The privatization of the prison industry complex is big,big business in this country…This industry benefits from the fact that unemployment in inner city communities are doubled that of the national average and that many traditional blue-collared jobs that could be found in this economy not too long ago are either obsolete or outsourced overseas thus eliminating many chances for many people without an advanced degree or "access" to make an earnest and decent living…The prison industry will always have work for their employees (the inmates) and they will get an even bigger return on their investment because they do not have to pay their workers a living or even minimum wage because this is the new age slavery plantation frontier.

You must also remember that every ethnic group had or have their own version of Crips and Bloods…All of these groups tend to prey on people that are more similar to them as far as race, cultural background, and economics are concerned…Before he became Scarface and the other Lucky, Al Capone and Charles Luciano used to run around with the notorious Junior 5 Pointers terrorizing Italian immigrants in New York City…The Jewish Gangsters Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel formed their own street gang known as the Bug Meyer Ganger which harassed pushcart and newspaper vendors in their Jewish neighborhood…Many of these first generation gangsters made sure that their kids were sent to the best military academies, law schools,and medical schools that their access to large amounts of money could afford thus enabling them to turn their illegimate money or blood money into a legitimate family inheritance…The sons and daughters as well grandchildren and great grandchildren of these "men of honor" are also some of the current judicial authorities and legislators enforcing these zero tolerances petty drug offense laws that are ruining the lives of so many of our youths…The same crimes that people like Joe Kennedy and others used to create their wealth and viewed as a rite of passage or a youthful indiscretion are the same crimes that are sending some of our best and brightest away for a long, long time…You must remember that every ethnic group at first started out in the ghettoes of America, but somehow Black folks as a people have been down there longer than anyone else had to endure so my question is why is that so???

It is also wrong for you to assume that all Black folks are followers of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and/or Min. Lou Farrakhan or any other person of color who happens to be in a leadership position for some reason or the other…There are some things I agree with them on and there are some things I do not and it has nothing to do with race card pulling…It's like saying that all White people are followers of Jerry Falwell,David Duke and Sen. Robert Byrd simply because they are white and hold or held leadership positions in their respective organizations…No one person or leader can represent the exact concerns, feelings and sentiments of a large group of people.

As far as sports are concerned I am sure that Charles Barkley and Karl Malone don't have any gripes about their individual treatment as former star athletes and both being very financially compensated for their talents…However, I beg to differ with you when you look at the role institutional racism has played in affecting Black people's chances for advancement outside of the playing field in sports entertainment…Individual success doesn't always equate to group success…Just look at Major League Baseball and my argument takes care of itself…It's been almost 60 years since the great Jackie Robinson integrated Modern Major League Baseball…Tragically it seems that we have digressed since then…Currently we have no Black owners in major league baseball…In the Negro Leagues all the teams were owned by Black people except for the Kansas City Monarchs which were owned by a White man from Iowa named J.L. Wilkinson, Jackie Robinson's former boss and the first person to use lights in a night game…The 2005 World Series runner-up Houston Astros fielded the first team without a Black player in the World Series since the 1953 Yankees…There is only one Black General Manager in all baseball and he's the one (Ken Williams) that led his team, Chicago White Sox, to a World Series win last year…Truth be told there are not really any Black players in the major leagues(Black players only make up nine percent of the MLB)…It has gotten so bad that Commissioner Bud Selig has recently started an inner city program to get Black youths back interested in playing baseball again after taking a tongue lashing from baseball great Joe Morgan several years ago on why baseball hasn't been doing enough to nurture talent in the inner cities…The reason why we have so many Latino players is because Major League Baseball already established this same type of commitment many years ago in Latin countries…Major League Baseball has committed itself to building facilities in inner cities throughout to help combat this situation…Do you know where they just opened the first of these facilities at??? In Compton, Ca the childhood home and training ground of such all time baseball greats as Dave Winfield and Tony Gwynn. Please click on link to view story:New Youth Baseball Facility Opens In Compton

And speaking of the great Joe Louis although I can see him saying that quote (the only race is the Human Race)it is because he was a better and more forgiving man than most…Many people don't realize that Joe Louis had to agreed to a contract stating that he wouldn't have sex or be caught socializing with white women if he wanted a shot at the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship (You must remember that Joe Louis was the first Black allowed to compete for the title in twenty plus years since the legendary and controversial boxer Jack Johnson who was notorious for sleeping with and marrying many White women at a time when the lynching of Blacks and race riots were at an all time high…The Mann Act which made illegal the transportation of (white) women across state lines for immoral purposes illegal was actually a law created to entrap Johnson and which caused him to serve 10 months in jail…Joe Louis did however have sexual relations with many high profile white women but he was very, very discreet about it…Another fact was when Joe Louis won a fight the newspaper illustrators/cartoonists would draw Joe Louis with white features and when he lose they would draw him as a eggplant headed, bug eyed, big lipped,dark skinned coon or nigger…Joe Louis didn't pull the race card the media institutions did.

As far as O.J. is concerned I don't think many Black folks care for O.J. and some that I know actually did think that he committed the crimes…Many Black people were not cheering for O.J., but for the fact that a Black person was able to beat a system where the murderers of Emmett Till were allowed to live their lives not behind bars, a system that allowed the tragedies known as the Scottsboro Boys cases and George Stinney,Jr. death sentence to happen, that before the summer of 1964 a white person was basically allowed to kill anyone Black in Mississippi without fear of testimony from Blacks or the law sending him/her to jail for a long stretch. Please look at the links about the Scottsboro Boys and George Stinney Jr. cases I gave you in the other e-mail.

I don't believe all White folks are racist at all, but I do believe that all White folks have benefited from institutional racism in one way or the other in thiscountry…The majority of people on welfare in this country are not Black Welfare Queens driving cadillacs as Pres. Reagan said, but White people…The so-calledaffirmative action program statistically speaking actually benefited White women more so than any other minority group…Wall Street wasn't made by people like E.F. Hutton, but was built on the lives of enslaved people…I don't believe that just because a company have all white employees that it's a racist institution…The reasons why many of these situations happen is because people in general have tendencies to choose to surround themselves with people that think like them, act like them and look like them...For some it's better to be comfortable…However, we should all try to challenge ourselves to give each one of us a fighting chance to succeed in this environment…Nobody every made it without someone either leaving them a key or a door already open…These are my thoughts feel free to add on or subtract.

Still your pal,ron

On 3/2/06, J wrote:

I would never check out anything on Tookie Williams,he was a murderingkiller, and of no value to the human race. Black on Black crimes occur because no white person would venture into COMPTON. Out of wedlock babies are the rule rather than the exception. Bill Cosby is right about language as well. Suppose a million man white march was suggested..The Jesse Jackson's of the world would have apoplexy. Larry Elder has all the facts and tells it like it is..Blacks tend to fall back on 'race'whenever they commit crimes.

Trillions are spent on education and looks what it gets...Kids cannot read, write or even talk. Parents are absent and don't seem to care. It is time for the African American population to stop whining about discrimination and get on the right track. Last night 3 missing black women were reported on the tube. If you use Tookie Williams as an example of an upstanding citizen, then God help the human race. Time for all to stand up and be counted and to stop making excuses for criminal behavior..Gangsta rap is a typical example of a culture going the wrong way, the whole industry is corrupt.

Hey I want to see progress not carping the same message of hate by the blacks. J

On 3/3/06 I wrote:

Dear J,You are doing the same things that you have accused others of doing as far as bigotry and seeing people as human beings...My point was not to try to change yourmind but to tell it how it appears to be…You are basically slandering a whole race of people while using the opinions,not the facts, of Larry Elder and Bill Cosby as an excuse for your answer…Are Bill Cosby and Larry Elder your answers to what Black Leadership suppose to be??? It's a shame that you think of Black folks in the inner city as being predators out to do "well meaning good natured" white folk harm...Myreality is that if I am walking in the wrong predominantly white neighborhood at the wrong time of day on the wrong day I could be actually "lynched" for being Black (just look at the James Byrd situation where he was dragged tied to a truck on the street by three crazy and insane white people back in June 7,1998 in Texas): James Byrd

How about Glenn Moore who was beaten to an inch of his life in Howard Beach, the late crime boss John Gotti's old neighborhood in New York City back in 2005:Glenn Moore Beaten Severely

Look what happened to Black folks obeying the law in Wilmington, NC back in 1898...This is way worse than the Watts Riots of 1965, Detroit Riots of 1968 and theL.A. Riots of 1992 combined...This is the actual economic,political,and social disenfranchisement of a group of people based on the fact that they were Black, successful and weren't supposed to be treated like whites...This is the only known successful White people insurrection in the history of the U.S. republic post-Reconstruction (by the way these racist White folks also attacked Whites who were sympathetic to Blacks as well ;o( This event shows why Jim Crow grew as popular way of life for many whites in America because the Federal Government, much like in the Hurricane Katrina fiasco did nothing to stop it or prevent it from doing damage that is still felt to this day: Wilmington Riot of 1898The Insurrection that helped Jim Crow

Then you talked about White folks marching and what the Jesse Jacksons of the world would do…They can't do a damn thing John but bitch because I hate (not really) to inform you but the Ku Klux Klan have marched on Washington D.C. sometimes in the tens of thousands several times since 1915: KKK History

Do you realize that the Klan at one point in its infamous history had a membership of over 4 million members in the 1920s...Do you realize that President Calvin Coolidge and Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black were prominent Klan members and that countless mayors, governors, law enforcement officials throughout the U.S. were Ku Klux Klan members as well??? Pres. Harry Truman did pay the $10 membership to join the Klan in Missouri but backed out at the last minute because among one of the reasons they were anti-Catholic (his political mentor and backer Kansas City Political Boss Tom Pendergast was a Catholic) Do you realize that your state along with the Northwest and Pennsylvania is home to one of the largest population of Skinheads and Neo-Nazis in the country??? It seems to me J that there are more gangsand hate mongers in the White race than there are gangbangers in all of Compton and inner city Amerikkka combined. Please click on this link find out more about Skinheads and Neo Nazis:

How about white folks do their part in this country and start to honor promises as well, where's that 40 acres and a mule??? Anyways the fact that you can't even name the names of the three Black missing women you seen on t.v. proves my point about the value of Black people's lives in this country...Just look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina...But J I think I have given you plenty of places where to the find the facts...Rap basically came from the same place that the jazz you like so much came from, poor disposessed people of color the descendants of enslaved people...If you did your research you would know the reason why rap was created was because funding for music education and instruments were cut out of the budget of many inner city schools during the 70s...The reason why gangs got so bad is because the government allowed for the inner cities to be flooded with drugs...You ever heard of Iran-Contra??? People like Tookie pre-redemption didn't bring the drugs, but they are guilty like your government of being greedy and murderous when it came time to share the wealth...Just because as you say spend trillions dollars on anything let alone education doesn't mean you get your desired results because it's not how much you spend it's how you spend and where you spend it…The system is working fine anyway...The whole purpose of our educational system is to create a permanent underclass of people to be exploited by the few in power…We are not living in a democracy (that's too socialist) we are living in oligarchy...We are spending billions of dollars a week or a trillion dollars in Afghanistan and Iraq and so do you think we are getting the desired results??? Please if you are truly open minded and want the best for Black folks like I do then please start going beyond Larry Elders and Bill Cosby and do some research on your own oncerning fact, fiction, true lies or opinion. Ronp.s.It's not too hard to steal anything from anyone, the trick is to make them believe that they owed it to you in the first place (What in the hell does Africa owesanybody???)

On 3/3/06, J wrote:

You are living in the distant past. Your hatred of whites is apparent. You mention things in 1943 for heavens sake....this is 2006. The race issue is passé.....Larry Elder is brilliant as is Cosby. How in the hell did I get involved in an issue that does not exist…It's insane.

You have completely misconstrued everything that I have said. There is a possibility that you are blinded by your beliefs. I am a REALIST....You have to fall back on the distant past...The world has changed. There is very little bigotry in the USA. I am NOT condeming a whole race of folks, just the bigots in the Black community. All of my black friends in the jazz world have let the race issue GO!!!!! They just shake their heads at the foolish notion that the war between the states is still raging....Forget race for God's sake and accept the HUMAN race....J

On March 3,2006 I wrote:

The more things change the more they stay the same…I did my part…All you need to do is look...So I hate white people that must mean that I hate you, but if you do believe that then it doesn't really matter what the truth is as you have proved by your inadequate responses and refusal to actually processed what was written...I also presented incidents from 1998 and 2005...By the way what year was you born in??? If you say somewhere in 1940s I guess you are old news as well...Why is it that people still hold onto the Constitution of the U.S. and Declaration of Independence like they were made yesterday and these documents were created in the 18 Century??? Some things are just timeless just like the one sided conversation about race...Why is that I am able to give you facts and you give me here say??? I think the education system in some weird way has failed you too my friend. :o( Thanks for helping me make food for thought.Ron

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